What are the 12 Days of Christmas?

★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://howstuffworks.com/question27.htm

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Each weekday Marshall Brain answers questions submitted by the readers of How Stuff Works in the Question of the Day section of HSW. You can also view previously answered questions in the HSW Question Archive. Here is today's question!

Question
What exactly are the "Twelve Days of Christmas"? When do they start and end?

Answer
The 12 days of Chistmas are the 12 days that separate Christmas day on December 25 from Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6. Depending on the church, January 6th may mark Christ's baptism (the Catholic tradition), or it may mark the day that the wise men visited the baby Jesus with their gifts.

In the past there was a tradition of giving gifts throughout the 12 days, rather than stacking them all up on the morning of December 25. That tradition, as you might imagine, has never really caught on in America!

Drennon's Twelve Days of Christmas offers some interesting perspectives on the 12 days of Christmas and the song of that same title. This page also contains a thesis-full of information!

For a complete look at Christmas, inlcuding the origins of all sorts of crazy Christmas traditions from mistletoe to Rudolf, see the HSW article How Christmas Works.

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